6 — Friday, October 13, 2017
Arts
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

ACROSS
1 Yanks’ foes
5 Operation
designed to hurt
10 Shipboard
resident
14 CFO, e.g.
15 Not as likely to
mess up
16 Walk without
getting
anywhere?
17 TW ...
20 Shoelace site
21 Shipboard chums
22 Tenn. neighbor
24 Apartment listing
abbr.
25 DCYC ...
34 Nice with?
35 Gobs and gobs
36 Cart for heavy
loads
37 Filly’s brother
38 Fighter eulogized
by Bill Clinton,
among others
39 Old-time teacher
40 “The Grapes of
Wrath” figure
41 Beams
43 Prime real
estate?
44 CI ...
47 Downed a sub,
say
48 In-law’s wife,
possibly
49 Refrigerates
53 One of a biblical
ten
58 AGT ...
62 Like quality beef
63 One “sitting
lonely on the
placid bust,” in a
classic poem
64 Course with
relevant tangents
65 Regular guys
66 Finals, e.g.
67 Spot

DOWN
1 “Star Wars”
warrior
2 Nerve cell part
3 Cravings
4 Ewan McGregor,
for one

5 They’re often free
6 Sched. question
mark
7 Kind
8 Once called
9 Sir Georg Solti’s
record 31
10 Rotating rod
11 Conduct
12 Hurting
13 Puts money (on)
18 Dash
19 Not at all
reflective
23 On the lam
24 Backs up a
videotape
25 Cobb salad
ingredient
26 Bring to mind
27 Composer
Mendelssohn
28 Good-sized
wedding band
29 Prefix for “sun”
30 Madison Ave.
pitchers
31 Carpentry, e.g.
32 Worries
33 Church numbers
41 Reacted to an
arduous workout

42 Shoes without
laces
45 Gymnast’s
powder
46 Ibiza, por
ejemplo
49 Key of the finale
of Brahms’
Symphony No. 1
50 “Les Misérables”
author
51 “Now it’s clear”

52 Old Fords
54 Hard-working
colonizers
55 Spice Girl
Halliwell
56 Second, e.g.
57 Sharp side
59 Reach capacity,
with “out”
60 Actress 
Mendes
61 President pro __

By Morton J. Mendelson
©2017 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
10/13/17

10/13/17

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

RELEASE DATE– Friday, October 13, 2017

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle

Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis

xwordeditor@aol.com

WARNER BROS. RECORDS

‘Lil Pump’ delivers hype 
despite lack of substance

Lil Pump is neither meaningful 

nor innovative. It has no message 
or theme, and Lil Pump very 
clearly has nothing of substance 
to say — but if you 
are listening to Lil 
Pump 
expecting 

something 
meaningful, 
you 

are listening to Lil 
Pump for the wrong 
reason.

17-year-old Lil Pump emerged 

out of Miami, a member of the 
South Florida wave that includes 
rappers such as xxxtentacion, 
$ki Mask the Slump God and 
wifisfuneral. These artists have 
in common varying degrees of 
manic-depressive 
tendencies, 

hedonistic worldviews, disregard 
for convention and raw energy. 
Lil Pump tends toward the latter 
three, his lyrical themes never 
delving beyond the debaucherous. 
He 
first 
gained 
fame 
on 

Soundcloud with the single “D 
Rose,” accompanied by a fantastic 
music video shot by visual artist 
Cole Bennett (whose videos are 
a veritable who’s who of up-and-
coming 
rappers). 
Follow-up 

releases “Boss” and “Gucci Gang” 
helped propel him to further viral 
fame, half of which stemmed from 
an appreciation (more often than 
not ironic) of his wild and rowdy 
aesthetic, while the other half 
stemmed from unbridled hatred 
of everything about him.

Lil 
Pump 
is 
certainly 
a 

controversial 
figure. 
Many 

feel that he is furthering the 
devolution of rap music with 
his 
shallow 
lyricism; 
others 

appreciate the mindless hype. 
He has become something of a 
running joke on the internet due 
to his songs and persona at times 
feeling like an astute parody of 
Soundcloud-rap culture.

No matter if you love him or 

hate him, you can’t deny that Lil 
Pump goes hard. Every song is 

as intense as the 
last — Lil Pump 
does 
not 
take 

breaks. 
South 

Florida 
rapper 

and 
frequent 

collaborator, 
Smokepurpp, has 

repeatedly described the music of 
Florida as “ignorant,” and Lil Pump 
certainly fits this description. The 
instrumentation is dominated by 
chilly dissonant bells and piano 
floating on top of bass that sounds 
like the producer turned the 
volume to eleven. This blown-out 
style is characteristic of producer 
Ronny J, a big influence on the 
South Florida sound, responsible 
for hard-hitting tracks such as 
“Ultimate” 
by 
Denzel 
Curry 

and “Gospel” by Rich Chigga. 
Ronny J is credited on three 
tracks across the album, sharing 
production with an assortment of 
lesser-known producers such as 
Mr. 2-17 and Bighead. 808 Mafia 
member TM88 is responsible for 
the eerie “Foreign,” one of the 
album’s highlights. The beats are 
often poorly mixed and cheap, but 
always fun and energetic. Joining 
Lil Pump are an assortment of 
big ticket rappers, most notably a 
cosign from fellow Miami rapper 
Rick Ross. The songs featuring 
these artists are the high points 
of the album (not including the 
singles) as they tend to actually be 
properly mixed, and the features 
provide some respite from Lil 

Pump’s rather repetitive nature. 
With that being said, the featuring 
artists never steal the show — Lil 
Pump does a surprisingly good job 
of holding his own, and you never 
forget that you’re listening to his 
album. 

Lil Pump has major faults 

— while Lil Pump does not 
intend to convey much meaning 
through his songs, his lyrics are 
still impressively bad. No matter 
how much unruly charisma Lil 
Pump possesses, there are only 
so many times he can repeat the 
phrase “Gucci Gang” before it 
gets boring. It is possible, as Lil 
Pump’s guests remind us, to make 
a song go hard without the lyrics 
beginning to feel like some sort of 
sacrilegious, barred-out mantra. 
The repetitiveness is at least 
tempered by some surreal bars: 
Across the span of the album Lil 
Pump turns down Harvard, sells 
cocaine to your grandma and has 
a stroke — not necessarily in that 
order. While it’s likely Lil Pump’s 
intention to embrace the lo-fi
 

aesthetic dominating Soundcloud 
rap now, most of the tracks on this 
album sound like ersatz Ronny 
J beats, often terribly mixed 
(looking at you, “Boss”). This 
combination of mind-numbingly 
stupid bars and often chintzy 
beats becomes increasingly more 
difficult to stomach as the album 
grinds on, and it doesn’t help that 
Lil Pump spends the whole time 
reminding the listener that he 
has had sex with seemingly every 
member of your extended family.

If you want to turn your brain 

off and feel the pure hype of Lil 
Pump course through your veins, 
listening to Lil Pump is a good 
move. If that doesn’t appeal to you, 
you’re going to really hate this 
album.

JONAH MENDELSON

For The Daily

Lil Pump

Lil Pump

Warner Bros. 

Records

KOCH MEDIA

‘Wadjda’ is a rousing tale 
of female empowerment

In “From the Vault,” Daily Arts 

takes a new look at old films.

It’s your 18th birthday. Your 

parents generously hand you the 
jingling keys to a 2006 Subaru. This 
is the most momentous moment of 
your adolescent life thus far. You 
are a woman.

Unfortunately, for women in 

Saudi Arabia, this rite of passage 

has never been a reality due to 
strict laws that divide genders in 
the country — creating two very 
separate spheres of life. On Sept. 
26, 2017, however, those harsh lines 
began to blur when Saudi Arabia’s 
King Salman issued a decree that 
now allows women to drive for the 
first time in the nation.

In 
2012, 
the 
first 
Saudi 

Arabian female director, Haifaa 
al-Mansour 
(“Mary 
Shelley”), 

directed “Wadjda” and instilled 
in her titular protagonist (Waad 
Mohammed) a desire that Saudi 
Arabian women alike shared: to 
drive. No, not drive a car, because 
al-Mansour understood that this 
was not a possibility, but rather 
drive something else: a bike. 
Al-Mansour imbued her story with 
the sentiment that these women 
wanted to be able to drive, or to 

take control, of the even smallest 
parts of their lives without a male 
voice dictating how they could 
transport themselves. This notion 
of female driving is not new; in 
Paula Vogel’s 1997 play, “How I 
Learned to Drive,” the notion of 
driving a car means much more 
than physically steering, but rather 
assuming agency over one’s goals, 
desires and maturation.

When Wadjda puts her mind to 

something, she gets it. She sticks 
out as funky and unconventional 
— her coarse, espresso-rich, mane-
like hair is always unruly (she has 
better things to do than sit in front 
of a mirror for hours and straighten 
her locks until they become burnt 
ends like her mother’s), and her ear 
lobes are lined with sparkly studs. 
So when Wadjda decides that she 
will win her school’s Koran contest 
to win money to pay for a bike — 
for her first ever opportunity at 
freedom — she really does it.

“Wadjda” opens up with Wadjda 

and her fellow schoolgirls singing 
verses from the Koran, as the 
camera traces their Mary Jane 
loafers in a tight close up until 
Wadjda’s scuffed, gothic Chuck 
Taylors with violet laces stand out 
from the rest. She is no ordinary 
girl. 
The 
next 
scene 
shows 

Wadjda counting up her riyals in 
hustler fashion, as she listens to 
Grouplove’s 2011 bubbly pop rock 
song “Tongue Tied.” Al-Mansour 
not-so-subtly depicts that Wadjda’s 
desires stretch way farther than 
the Arabian Peninsula, especially 
those desires which make her 
want to be seen as an equal to the 
opposite sex.

Wadjda doesn’t ask for much; 

she spends most of her time alone. 
She doesn’t expect her totalitarian 
headmaster, Ms. Hussa, to give 
her any respect. When Wadjda 

wins the Koran contest and Ms. 
Hussa gives the funds instead to 
Palestine and not to Wadjda, she is 
disappointed but from surprised. 
She doesn’t ask her negligent 
father to give her attention as he 
goes between his two families. She 
doesn’t think of her male peers as 
anything more than an immature. 
When Wadjda’s mother tells her 
that her father likes her hair long 
and straight as a way to attempt 
to seem attractive to him and save 
their relationship, Wadjda rolls her 
eyes, telling the audience that even 

at a young age, she recognizes that 
changing oneself to appeal to men 
is foolish.

“Wadjda” 
closes 
with 

bittersweet fireworks, as Wadjda 
and her mother embrace. They 
watch 
her 
father’s 
marriage 

ceremony 
from 
their 
stucco 

balcony, as if, finally, they are 
both in sync that pleasing a man 
is an impossible battle and that 
female companionship is steady. 
It is a tough pill to swallow, but 
Wadjda persists nonetheless, and 
the audience senses that in this 
lonesome moment, she is not alone. 
It is as if Wadjda helped initiate 
the battle for equality and being 
the driver of one’s own life, so now 
Saudi Arabian girls like her can 
ride their bikes (and cars) off to 
freedom into the burning Middle-
Eastern sun.

SOPHIA WHITE

For The Daily

FILM REVIEW
‘Victoria & Abdul’ misses mark

WARNER BROS. RECORDS

“Victoria & Abdul” is the latest 

entry in the surprisingly crowded 
“British 
imperialism 
drama” 

genre, following on films like 
“Viceroy’s House” and “A United 
Kingdom,” in which a white 
English person finds themselves 
in a type of Odd Couple-dynamic 
with a person from a country 
under colonialist rule and forms 
a close bond with them. It is the 
latest film to take a story that begs 
to serve as a criticism of a power-
hungry system of governing and 
instead uses it as a trite dramedy. 
While certainly well-acted and 
intermittently 
endearing, 
it 

completely misses 
and 
sometimes 

seemingly 
intentionally 
obfuscates 
what 

should have been 
the thesis of its 
entire narrative.

The film tells the true story of 

the friendship between Queen 
Victoria (Dame Judi Dench, 
“Miss Peregrine’s Home for 
Peculiar Children”) and her 
Indian servant, Abdul Karim 
(Ali Fazal, “For Here or To 
Go?”). Historically, the two were 

incredibly close, with Karim 
acting as a sort of teacher to the 

Queen on subjects 
relating to Indian 
culture. Before her 
death, she would 
have knighted him 
as a Commander 
of 
the 
Royal 

Victorian 
Order 

despite the friction 
it 
caused 
with 

members of her house.

To state the obvious, Dench 

is fantastic as Queen Victoria 
– reprising the role she played 
in 1997’s “Mrs. Brown” — and 
she brings all the gravitas and 
emotional complexity that one 
would expect of an actress of her 

regal reputation. The script is 
rather ham-fisted in its treatment 
of her, climaxing in the most 
Oscar-baiting speech of the year, 
but the flaws have nothing to do 
with Dench’s work. As Abdul, 
Fazal is perfectly charming and 
shares a nice camaraderie with 
Adeel Akhtar (“The Big Sick”) 
in earlier scenes, but again 
due to the writing, he comes 
across 
as 
disappointingly 

one-dimensional. He is all too 
rarely given the opportunity to 
do anything other than smile 
and offer praise and wisdom to 
Victoria.

It is clearly that script, 

written by Lee Hall (“War 
Horse”), which is the film’s 

biggest 
stumbling 
block. 

“Victoria & Abdul” is fine, if 
all too slight in its first half 
as it deals with the developing 
friendship between its two 
titular characters. It’s in the 
second half that it devolves 
into 
a 
series 
of 
blustery, 

tittering 
confrontations 

between Victoria and her staff, 
all but completely abandoning 
the bond at the core of the 
story and robbing Abdul of 
all agency. He becomes a 
background player in a film in 
which he is ostensibly one of 
the stars.

JEREMIAH VANDERHELM

Daily Arts Writer

“Victoria & 

Abdul”

Focus Features

Ann Arbor 20, 

Michigan Theater

Read more online at 

michigandaily.com

When Wadjda 
puts her mind to 
something, she 

gets it

It is a tough pill 
to swallow, but 
Wadjda persists 

nonetheless

MUSIC REVIEW
FROM THE VAULT

